poor arturo, he was dewormed april 15th, then april 17th , and now i have to go pick up panacur at my vet, he hasnt had a solid poop since i got him.... just soft serve...... now i have to RE disinfect my yard, use the shovel again, and dig holes..... grrrrrrrr..

either you see worms in their poop or by a fecal test... he has had both done.. whenever i get a new foster dog i take their poop apart with a stick to make sure as if they have worms they cant poop in the normal part of the yard.. once a year my dogs get their poop tested for worms.

he doesnt touch his poop, but he is eating the grass, and that means i have to leash him and make him poop in the dirt instead, or start digging up the grass..
he has been dewormed with: drontel, strongid, and now i have to pick up the panacur... the stool samples all came back clean the last 2 times, but because his poop is still soft serve the vet is thinking that there are still some worms hiding that i cant see ... he had roundworms when i first got him home, those i saw.. he had regular poop for 2 days with me, and thats it.. its been soft serve since.. i am thinking he is reinfecting himself by eating the grass.. but he doesnt eat the grass where he poops though, he eats the grass on the opposite side of the yard.... every fecal i bring in shows negative.. yet he cant give a solid poop ..... i am feeding him california natural chicken and rice with acidophilus powder and syn flex for his ankle and a sprig of salmon oil ( 3 drops ) in his food.. he gets no treats except natural ones, and doesnt eat toys or anything ...

Maryellen wrote:he doesnt touch his poop, but he is eating the grass, and that means i have to leash him and make him poop in the dirt instead, or start digging up the grass..he has been dewormed with: drontel, strongid, and now i have to pick up the panacur... the stool samples all came back clean the last 2 times, but because his poop is still soft serve the vet is thinking that there are still some worms hiding that i cant see ... he had roundworms when i first got him home, those i saw.. he had regular poop for 2 days with me, and thats it.. its been soft serve since.. i am thinking he is reinfecting himself by eating the grass.. but he doesnt eat the grass where he poops though, he eats the grass on the opposite side of the yard.... every fecal i bring in shows negative.. yet he cant give a solid poop ..... i am feeding him california natural chicken and rice with acidophilus powder and syn flex for his ankle and a sprig of salmon oil ( 3 drops ) in his food.. he gets no treats except natural ones, and doesnt eat toys or anything ...

It sounds like you're feeding all good stuff....That's why I'm wondering if it's not something else. Coccidia can live in the ground for a VERY long time. Coccidia is a big problem and can cause soft serve and/or diarrhea (and can only be taken care of with 5 - 7 days of drontal)...

Also, clostridium...normal in the intestines...can cause soft-serve if it overgrows. Usually fixed with some flagyl....

Giordia is usually a problem that occurs when they drink puddles....but not impossible to get if there's been a lot of rain...

Is the soft-serve just soft, or is there any mucous?

Something to try: get regular canned pumpkin. Put a spoonful in every meal. This actually was the trick for both my girls!!!

its regular soft serve, no mucus.. the drontol he got was one pill for one day.. the strongid was liquid, one mouthful one night at the vets. i was thinking the other stuff, but i dont let him drink from puddles, and the rain we had he refused to go outside to pee/poop until it stopped... i will sugges the coccidia and the guardia to the vet when i go to get the 3 days of panacur..

oh yeah, the old owner said his stomach was very sensitive, and he had soft serve with her too.. but she never did anything about it..

he was also on flagyl for a week and penicillian too for a week with me, as the vet said he had a bacterial infection... but he has beenwith me since 4/15/06 and oout of that time, only 2 poops were normal...

Maryellen wrote:its regular soft serve, no mucus.. the drontol he got was one pill for one day.. the strongid was liquid, one mouthful one night at the vets. i was thinking the other stuff, but i dont let him drink from puddles, and the rain we had he refused to go outside to pee/poop until it stopped... i will sugges the coccidia and the guardia to the vet when i go to get the 3 days of panacur..

Also suggest the clostridium....usually flagyl fixes it (and it typically fixes giordia)...

Coccidia is harder to get rid of...

Maryellen wrote:oh yeah, the old owner said his stomach was very sensitive, and he had soft serve with her too.. but she never did anything about it..

I would try the pumpkin....

What about a different food? California Natural is good...but I was thinking maybe a different protein source???

Two of mine came down with a cloistridium issue a couple of winters ago -- it was pretty bad and the flagyl didn't work completely. We ended up using Tylan powder for about a year on each dog until the cloistridium was under control.

Good advice, Katie -- most vets don't think to look for it. My guys saw three different vets before the fourth vet diagnosed it properly.

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.

he was on the CA Natural herring and sweet potato first, and he had the soft serve then, so i figured the chicken and rice to try next, lamb is kinda rich for most dogs. he does have a sensitive stomach, so i have to be careful what i give him,unless the worms were so bad since he was never wormed before that its taking a while to get rid of all of them.... i am going to get the canned pumpkin and try that too..

Marinepits wrote:Two of mine came down with a cloistridium issue a couple of winters ago -- it was pretty bad and the flagyl didn't work completely. We ended up using Tylan powder for about a year on each dog until the cloistridium was under control.

Good advice, Katie -- most vets don't think to look for it. My guys saw three different vets before the fourth vet diagnosed it properly.

My vet checked for it b/c Nisha was only about 4-5 months old when she came down with it...it's apparently common in pups....but she had soft serve/diarrhea for weeks...covered by mucous...they had exhausted all other things (coccidia, giordia, worms, etc)....They looked for clostridia, and her poop was apparently OVERRUN with it....they put her on 2 extra-strength flagyl per day for 14 days....and on a sensitive stomach diet....

Marinepits wrote:Two of mine came down with a cloistridium issue a couple of winters ago -- it was pretty bad and the flagyl didn't work completely. We ended up using Tylan powder for about a year on each dog until the cloistridium was under control.

Good advice, Katie -- most vets don't think to look for it. My guys saw three different vets before the fourth vet diagnosed it properly.

My vet checked for it b/c Nisha was only about 4-5 months old when she came down with it...it's apparently common in pups....but she had soft serve/diarrhea for weeks...covered by mucous...they had exhausted all other things (coccidia, giordia, worms, etc)....They looked for clostridia, and her poop was apparently OVERRUN with it....they put her on 2 extra-strength flagyl per day for 14 days....and on a sensitive stomach diet....

Poor Nisha!

My guys are adults and both had the soft serve and diarrhea alternating for weeks, too, and were tested for all the above that you listed. One of them was just crapping nothing but mucous for a few days, so that's when I called a friend of mine who is a vet and lives over an hour away -- I dropped off a sample and got the diagnosis the next morning.

I fed them nothing but cottage cheese and rice or pasta for about 10 days, then weaned them back to a normal kibble diet. After they stabilized on the Tylan powder, I switched them over to Merrick Wilderness blend and weaned them off the Tylan. Thank the lord, no more cloistridium!

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.